We Discuss Pizza and An Abundance of Katherines

It’s time Mime and I had another little discussion.

Instead of a rather gritty interrogation (like last time) we’re having a civilised chat about An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. Since Mime’s on holidays, we decided FOR ONCE to read the same book. We almost always read different books. At least, this way, we cover more ground. But it’s nice to be able to discuss once and a while, right?

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton’s type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact.On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun–but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl. Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself.

MIME: Perhaps The Fault in Our Stars has set the bar unusually high, but The Abundance of Katherines was…weird. Weird in a few different ways. Like, who writes a book about maths? Really? Maths?

CAIT: I personally hate maths. This may come as a surprise to you, but I legitimately do not like numbers. They’re so stiff and unimaginative. There’s only one answer! ONE! How narrow-minded is that?! Where is the creative license?

MIME: But it makes it easy to mark…I usually get my math tests back within a week! For a book about math, it was a bit improbable. Colin (the narrator) had 19 girlfriends over the course of his 17 years. All named Katherine. How likely is it to meet (in your area) 19 people with a name of Katherine all spelled the same way!? It’s not probable, statistically. I don’t know if that flavoured my opinion of the book before I started.

CAIT: He wouldn’t date Kates, or Katrinas or Catherines or Kits or Cats or Cates or Kaitlyns. It was Katherines or nothing for our little Colin McFussy. He’s CDO, which is like OCD, but the letters are in the correct order, yes?

MIME:You saw that on Pinterest.

CAIT: Sue me.

MIME: So the biggest things in any John Green book, is firstly death, and secondly, humour.

CAIT: Which is why we enjoy them so much. Death and funniness! Gallows humour! Yay!

MIME: Surprisingly, this book was more about break ups than death. (Though, apparently, break ups are like death for teenagers.) But as for the funniness! Oh, this books gets all the stars. Or most of them.

CAIT: Colin was quite like Mime, actually. High achiever. Little genius. Terrible sense of humour. (Just joking, Mime, you’re mildly funny a few times a year.) It was his BFF, Hassan, who was hilarious. Even when Colin fell and bashed his head on a rock, did Hassan run to the rescue? Nope. He just let Colin lie there.

MIME: Because Hassan is just like Cait!

CAIT:I reject that. Then there was Lindsey! I’d like to call her the “love-interest” but Colin has this THING for Katherines, so he basically could not fall in love with Lindsey. SO, Mimey, do you think the characters here were similar or different to John Green’s other books?

MIME: Well, this makes the third of his books I’ve read —CAIT: (I’ve read 4! I win! Ha ha!)

MIME: (What are you, five?) — and I have to say, they were not the same characters. Colin was maybe closest to Pudge from Looking for Alaska, but in a way that they would get along as friends rather than be twins. Actually, Colin was a difficult character, because he had a lot going on. In fact, he was almost a bit self-absorbed at times, because he had so much happening in his head.

CAIT:Smart people do have to suffer a lot. It’s so sad. But what can we do? All these thoughts! All these ingenious plans! It’s tiring, honestly. Being a genius is like this:

It’s very hard to contain, very hard to upkeep. Which is Colin’s problem actually. He’s having a mid-teen-crisis about if he’s a genius or not.

MIME: He’s not a genius, he’s a prodigy.

CAIT:Exactly! Crisis! The book is basically about WHO ARE YOU.

MIME: Actually, the book is about Colin being a control-freak because he wants to find a formula to predict exactly when he’ll get dumped in each relationship. Who does that? People are not math!

CAIT: I’d probably rate An Abundance of Katherines as my least liked John Green book. (TFIOS is still my favourite. Probably Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns are tied.)

MIME:I guess my real problem with the book was who the target audience is. I’m 16, in Year 10. Typical reader of YA contemporaries, right? I had no idea what the maths was, and I’m doing the advanced stuff.

CAIT: Are you tooting your trumpet, Mime? So advanced…yet you say “stuff”.

MIME: I said maths. Not eloquence.CAIT: But! Fun fact: John Green doesn’t get maths either! He actually had a friend help him with all the maths in this book. I read it in the appendix. Did you read the appendix, Mime?

MIME: No, it was about maths.

CAIT: So we can basically conclude that, if a book is about maths, Mime and I and our puny brains will struggle.

MIME: My brains is not puny! Advanced in maths! And I still didn’t get Colin’s theorem. So is this book for seniors and university students and the really, really smart… who are going to be so brainy they might be bothered by the fact the book has no plot other than the discovery of this theorem and Colin’s love-life?

CAIT: Fussy, fussy. You’re so hard to please, aren’t you? Who will read this book? DFTBA fans, that’s who. And they’re smart. Or smart wannabes. I’m a wannabe. Because I can’t math.

MIME: I gave the book 3 stars. I really did have a good time reading it, but too many things bothered me the whole way through.

CAIT: I gave it 4-stars, because I’m a better Nerdfighter than you are.

MIME: I’ve watched more vlogs than you have.CAIT:I filled out the Nerdfighter survey!!

MIME: I bought you Paper Towns for Christmas!

CAIT: I bought myself TFIOS for no reason! Ha!

MIME: I’M SAVING THE PLANET BY NOT CUTTING DOWN EXTRA TREES!

CAIT: WELL I LIKE PIZZA.

MIME: That’s the best you can do?

CAIT:

we obviously need your opinion on this matter: “pizza is the answer” — yay or nay? oh and also, how many John Green books have you read? have you tried An Abundance of Katherines? thoughts on it? and if you’re brave…is maths your nemesis?

Cait and Mime are rather intelligent human beans, despite being woefully opposed to maths. Who needs those sneak little numbers anyway? They’re evil. Mime has just spent the last 3 days at Youth Orchestra with her flute whilst giggling at squeaky violins. Cait has spent the last 3 days sick and may or may not have watched a bit of Sherlock to pass the time.

Comments

PIZZA IS ALWAYS THE ANSWER. (I just had to get that out of my system.)Anyway. AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES honestly wasn't my favourite John Green book… but I still enjoyed it. Yes, yes, I'd admit, what put me off the most was the maths. I hate maths. It's too logical. And confusing. And it doesn't many any sense. And it's just generally evil and bad and horrible. I stopped doing it after year 10, and am SO grateful that I won't have to do it in my HSC this year. xD Funnily enough, I now have a craving for pizza…

I have read all of John Green's books at least twice (TFIOS five or six times, can't remember). So I suppose I win 🙂 I didn't like the maths part that much, but it was interesting. And I LOVED all the footnotes. Also, the improbability of dating 19 Katherines was intentional. Though I suppose that wasn't obvious. (I saw it in an interview with John Green somewhere). Cait, you should watch all the vlogs. They're hilarious. Especially the ones where they add "in your pants" to various novels (including John's – try it!). I'm glad you liked it despite the maths. 🙂

No, I am afraid pizza is not. The answer. Do not cast your stones, hear me out first, at least. I never thought I could actually get tired of pizza. Then, back in 2010, we had to go on an emegency trip. We had pizza nearly every day. I love pizza, but at that time, I was sick of it.Anyway, no, I haven't read An Abundance of Katherines. I might one day, but it is not this day.~Robyn

i do absolutely love pizza and hate maths. and…. i think pizza is the answer!! I have just finished reading The Fault In our Stars and I really want to read an Abundance Of Katherines. Thanks for the review of the book so can know what it will be like. The youth orchestra was awesome (i was one of the cellists). Great solo by the way Mime.t.j * the multiinstrumentalist*

Maths is evil. I dropped it at the end of year 11 and did geography in year 12 instead (colouring-in homework trumps anything maths can offer!). BUT. I preferred this to Looking for Alaska. I'm not quite sure why. Possibly because I read Looking for Alaska after like three other John Green books, whereas I had a pretty big break from John Green before I read this one! But I totally understand why people aren't big fans of An Abundance of Katherines.

I've read one and a half John Green books…I read half of TFioS, didn't like it, went and gave half of An Abundance of Katherines a shot, REALLY didn't like it, and then tried TFioS again and loved it. I agree with Mime, An Abundance of Katherines was a little…weird. Not a bad weird, just a "didn't-gel-with-me-like-most-books" weird. Maybe I'll give it another chance later on in life and love it like I do TFioS. Until then…it's just not my cuppa tea.Also, pizza is always the answer. I miss eating real pizza…wheat allergies suck. :/

I've read all of John Green's books, and I have to agree with Cait- I'd say TFIOS at the top, AAOK at the bottom and Paper Towns and LFA tied in the middle. Will Grayson, Will Grayson is actually pretty decent as well :)Maths: I actually did the advanced maths course at school too (it's called Specialist Maths in South Australia), so I'd say I was pretty good as maths, but at the time I read AAOK I hadn't done maths for two or three years and so lost all my mathematical abilities (and now need help multiplying numbers by four when I take a patient's pulse…the struggle is real.) I kind of got bored by the appendix and ended up skimming it lol.

Ahaha, I'd have to say that An Abundance of Katherines is my MOST liked John Green book – and I'd still only give it 2.5/5 stars, which… yeah, probably tells you something about my opinion of TFioS. xD I didn't understand the math at all either!

I haven't read An Abundance of Katherines, so I can't really participate in this discussion, but pizza on the other hand… YUM! It's almost lunch time, can you tell? LOL Anyway, at least I got to stare at Sam & Dean for a bit while reading your post. Happy Friday!

I haven't read it and I'm kind of . . . happy about that? I KNOW, I KNOW. BUT HEAR ME OUT OKAY? Seriously, guys, stop giving me weird looks and throwing math books at my face and just LISTEN.My reason: I'd like to continue thinking John Green is awesome, and I feel as though if I read this book I won't continue feeling that way and that would indeed be a sad day for the world. Paper Towns and TFiOS were so grandtastically magical and this . . . I'M NOT FEELING THE MAGIC.Also, I got a C in math. I don't want to relive that pain.

I tried to start it once but didn't get very far. It actually annoyed me that he had only dated Katherines and that he managed to find so many with that name. Makes no sense and is really unlikely and just didn't seem realistic. I'd probably give this another go soon, but that did bother me a lot. Also… MATHS! Who likes maths? NO ONE!!!

I've read all of john Green's books. As a rule I liked them less as I read more of them (probably because I came to realise that they are all pretty similar), so Paper towns is my least favourite. I didn't really like paper towns, Quentin was too annoying. I did still enjoy reading the others though, even if an abundance of Katherines was a bit too mathsy for me. (as you can tell, I much prefer making up my own words!!) I still liked it

No no no you've got it all wrong! Why is no one here standing up for math? I will be the voice in the wilderness. Math is SUPER imaginative! (Im guessing neither of you have taken calculus yet, so you have NO CLUE.) With math, you can add up an infinite number of things and get a finite number! (Not usually, but sometimes.) Like 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/4 + 1/5 + 1/6 + …..and so on and so forth all just equals 1. How cool is that! You get to play with INFINITY. SUCH POWER. But yes, dating 19 girls named Katherine is sorta weird. And superficial. And then a formula for when he'll get dumped? Sounds like he's a bit depressed. Maybe he needs to branch out a bit. BUT MATH. Also, pizza can occasionally be the answer. In this situation – I say YES.

Yep, yep, yep. I'm definitely more linguistic than I am math-y. (Actually, I'm taking an Algebra summer school class at the moment. Oh the pain!). And the fact that Mime didn't quite get the math in this when she's doing advanced math? Not a good sign for my little brain. But I totally agree with Mime. The probability of dating 19 girls named Katherine all spelled the same way in a small town like that? Not very likely, eh?I'll definitely consider giving this one a try though. Hopefully I don't go over my head with all the math. Thanks for sharing Cait and Mime, and, as always, HILARIOUS discussion / review! (And, yes, pizza is always the answer! xD)

OMG, you guys are too funny! I have yet to read this one, but it's on the list. If you want a John Green collab that *doesn't* feature death — and honestly, why WOULD you — Will Grayson, Will Grayson is pretty good. Maybe no gallows humor, but plenty of hilarity, to be sure. 🙂

I haven't read this book yet, only TFIOS from JG but I didn't know it was about Maths! It sounds like a really evil genius way to figure out the dating formula y'know? I really enjoyed your post lovelies!

Obviously, yes to pizza (though, only good pizza). As for The Abundance of Katherines, I haven't read it yet (though I am almost done with Looking for Alaska) and the one reason I have been putting it off is one that you mentioned: I barely know three people with the same name, let alone 19. Also, who is 17 and has had 19 girlfriends period? I mean, I was 17, and you know how many boyfriends I'd had? Yeah, zero. I am just too afraid to taint my love for John Green, so this will probably remain unread for a bit.

PIZZA IS THE ANSWER! I've never read The Abundance of Katherines, THOUGH YOU GUYS DISCUSSION IS 100% PURE GOLD. But "maths". Wow. haha. "maths". Ok I'll stop. I honestly didn't know that this was about math either, which kind of I don't know, doesn't make me want to read it? Just kidding I do like math somewhat, but I kind of have mixed feelings about the whole Katherines thing. More like the plot/summary doesn't really appeal to me. But it's definitely on my TBR list, just not my top priority. BUT I DO WANT TO READ IT. I've only read Looking for Alaska (which I didn't connect to only because I KNOW boarding schools aren't like that because I went to one), and then TFIOS was MY FAVE. Still have to read Paper Towns though.THANKS FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT! And Cait I can't believe you're older than Mime. Really, I can't.

YES TO PIZZA. No to maths! I love how at the end you guys were debating over who was the bigger Nerdfighter, lol. I don't regularly watch the vlogs, and I've only read 2 books by John… must remedy that immediately. I have Paper Towns in my shelf, so hopefully it's a good one!

Pizza is heaven. I especially love the one with shrimps on it. You can never go wrong with shrimps, friends!As for your review, I LOOOOVED reading it. You guys really are so funny, and the banter you do always makes me smile. How do you guys do it? HOW?! In any case, it did felt like this book was a little too pretentious for me, but I did like it in the end. I think I rated it between 3-4 stars? It's so long ago, though, so I really forgot my specific thoughts about it. I only read two from John Green – this one and TFiOS and I honestly don't know if I wanna read more. I don't feel compelled at the moment but that may change soon XDFaye at The Social Potato

Shrimps? On pizza???! NOOOOO! (My Dad would agree with you, but ugh! Anything fishy. Ugh!) I did have a fondness for AOK by the end. Technically I would have made it 3.5 if I could. It had too many little issues to be higher than that for me. But it was funny. Which is good. I'm really glad you found us funny. Sometimes we wonder if we're only funny in our own weird minds, so it's encouraging to know that other people have weird minds, too.

It's quite tempting at times to drop maths with my HSC, but as much as I dislike it, it's one of my better subjects. (How's that for irony?) So maths stays in. 😉 Pizza craving all round. CAIT! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE???!

I think the footnotes were the best part. Now I know one of the American presidents was so fat he got stuck in his bathtub. That is totally useful knowledge. (I have a thing for random bits of trivia knowledge that no one cares about whatsoever.)

You get to do colouring-in homework for year 12 geography?? I am so tempted now. 🙂 Looking for Alaska was kind of weird… not five stars, but I still really liked it. I can see how you might get a bit John Greened out. Too many dying love interets, maybe?

Ugh! Wheat allergies! Terrible things. I'm not wheat allergic, but we tend to be more gluten-free than not gluten-free. (Pizza is always homemade in our house. I can't even remember the last time I had take away pizza.) I'm glad you ended up liking TFioS! I do that occasionally with books–think "nah" and then try again and adore it. Sometimes you have to be in the right headspace.

For some reason I've always been okay with multiplying by four. It's seven that gets me. It takes me forever to multiply by seven. Nasty number. I need to read Paper Towns! It's on my to-read pile. I'll get there eventually. I read the first chapter, and it was great, so I'm pretty certain I'll love it.

Is that why our pageviews have gone up since we started using Supernatural GIFs…? So many things make sense now! (Also that was the best episode, when Sam burst into the room and fell on his head, and Dean didn't even blink. Also, "I lost my shoe.")

I think, I'm not sure, but I think John Green's books get steadily better. Or at least, from what I've heard. Though Looking for Alaska is a pretty epic debut. I can't wait for whatever comes next, though TFioS is a hard bar to hurdle!

Yeah, that bit bothered me, too. I may be old fashioned, but I honestly don't like it when characters just date people for the fling of it–like, they really don't care what the person is LIKE–just because there's something about them, like a particular name. Because who says, "Yes, my soulmate's name is Katherine. I don't really mind what else she's like. Just so long as her name is Katherine." But in the actual book, it was more of an accident that all his girlfriends names were Katherine.

I do like it how he takes weird names and makes them cool, though. Like Quentin and Augustus and Pudge. And I don't think I've read a Colin before this book. Yeah, mathsiness. I think very people actually enjoy it, and those who do have a duty to become a) engineers or b) math teachers. Particularly B so they can keep the misery of maths going through the generations.

Wait– that equation works? Well my brain just got turned inside out. It's those nasty little infinite numbers and surds and that sort of thing that twist my head. Though algebraic equations aren't bad at all. Because you can check them. And that way during a test you know if you're going to get it right or not. Maths isn't all bad. It doesn't matter who your teacher is, you'll always get the same answer. For instance, my English teacher marked me down for using a fragment sentence in my short story. I know writers use fragment sentences all the time. So I was a little mad. 😉

I'm pretty sure he lived in a city and some of them he met at summer camps and that sort of thing, but still. I've never met 19 people with the same name, I'm only a year younger than Colin, and the probablity of not only meeting them but having them like you enough to get together with you…. yeah. It bothered me. Also, everyone seems to like Cait's pizza. Okay. Who am I to object to pizza?

Also, Colin is supposed to be unpopular. He has one friend. And has had nineteen girlfriends. That also rings "uh-huh" bells for me, because most people, at least that I've encountered, manage to con people into hanging around them as friends, but can't get someone to actually say "I like you". So I don't know if it works differently in America and public schools, but that IS kind of strange. 🙂

PIZZA IS FOREVER! (I just ate pizza. Its joys are full in my mind.)I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who hasn't Paper Townsed yet. SO MANY BOOKS, SO LITTLE TIME. I say that so often it's getting cliche. Sigh. And I did wonder if boarding school was as chaotic as LFA indicated…

I have yet to read this one, along with Will Grayson. I'm honestly sick of that man refusing to give readers at least one happy ending, so not putting myself through that crap again. I own them all though. I'm all about the quirk, but he only dates Katherine's? 19 in 17 years? For starters, he's nuts, secondly, the boy sure gets around. Loved the review, and so civil this time 😀 Think I'll hold off on any more John Green's for a while still though, he's just too commercial now 🙁

Well I'm actually wondering if I will end up liking this book because maths and I have a long standing arrangement in which we do not make eye contact, and this is not in the Lizzie/Darcy way. This is in the "we both know it's not gonna work" way. We'll see, I suppose, since I have the box-set. Still, I'm now just going to continually side-eye it. This is going to get uncomfortable.

I have read…um, 0 Green books. Yah, sue me. Actually, the abundance (!) of maths you mentioned in this blog just might have convinced me to hunt this book down with a harpoon and read it. Besides that, I know 6 Katherines. Sure, a couple of them are Katies, a Kitty and a Kat in common time, but they're all base Katherine. I also know a few Catherines…judging by Facebook.

PS. After reading other user comments, I have concluded that a lot of people still have yet to read a Green book. I AM kind of a Nerdfighter, though. Funny story: I met both Hank Green and some of the Starkid crew (sadly not Darren, though) before I was actually a fan of either productions.Now I'm going to bed. Seriously. It's 2.30am here, and I really should have been sleeping at least half an hour ago when I stopped writing. *shakes fist a NotebookSisters* xD